Delhi High Court heard Ajay Devgan’s plea seeking protection of his personality rights against deepfake and obscene AI-generated content. The Court ordered that offensive and pornographic material using his name or likeness must be taken down immediately.
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NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court is set to hear a plea filed by Bollywood superstar Ajay Devgan, also known as Vishal Veeru Devgan, seeking protection of his personality rights. The case comes amid growing concerns in the entertainment industry about unauthorized use of celebrity images and likenesses.
Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora will preside over the matter. The court took up the case earlier today, and the hearing is scheduled for 2:30 PM. Senior advocate Pravin Anand appeared on behalf of Ajay Devgan.
Ajay Devgan’s Personality Rights Case
During the hearing, Devgan’s counsel informed the court that a number of defendants were illegally monetizing the actor’s identity. These included:
- Sale of merchandise such as t-shirts, caps, and posters
- Unauthorized listings on Amazon
- Creation and circulation of AI-generated deepfake videos
- A defendant falsely claiming to be an official booking agent
- YouTube channels are allegedly creating obscene, offensive, and false content
Advocate Anand highlighted Devgan’s significant public standing, including his large social media following, his status as one of the highest-paid OTT actors, and his philanthropic work.
The Court reviewed a list of alleged infringing URLs and questioned whether YouTube was approached for takedown before filing the plea.
“Have you registered a protest with YouTube beforehand on the issue of unpleasant videos? I will grant this relief now but in future petitions, protest must be filed first or wait two months.”
– Justice Arora
The Court clarified that not all content could be removed at an ex parte stage:
“Deepfake, pornographic content we can take down. Some photos that are just reproductions cannot be taken down immediately.”
The Court acknowledged past precedent, such as the Jaya Bachchan case, in which obscene videos were ordered to be removed.
Counsel representing Google informed the court that they would comply with any order issued:
“We will comply with the order. But if fans are simply discussing a movie, courts will be flooded by petitions and the internet will need sanitization.”
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